


find your mark

by sra



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Sex, LET ANA FUCK, Mentioned Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Mentioned Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Vignette, gun metaphors but not the kind you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 21:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sra/pseuds/sra
Summary: 'He wasn't sure what he was more grateful for: finding her instead of a more vengeful ghost, or learning the hard way that she'd switched from bullets to sleep darts.'Jesse and Ana run into each other by chance. Everything after that is a choice.





	find your mark

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably not fully compliant with the Overwatch timeline but I value my sanity on occasion so it's just gonna stay like this.

"This is where we suspect Talon bases are currently located." Amari gestures to the illuminated map in front of them. Jesse has one hand braced on the desk and the other on the back of her chair, but Amari doesn't seem to mind. She's in so close to him, he can smell the cardamom she likes to put in her tea.

He's been rooming with her at an old Overwatch bunker for a week now. He'd expected to find it deserted when he first rolled into town, and he wasn't sure what he was more grateful for: finding her instead of a more vengeful ghost, or learning the hard way that she'd switched from bullets to sleep darts after her not-quite demise.

They’d exchanged a few words about the years that stretched between them. There wasn’t a lot to say; neither of them were really looking for explanations. After all, he’d walked away too. He understood, at least in his own way, why she’d done what she had to do.

“You’re gonna need help if you’re going after Talon.” Jesse says. “And even then, it’s reckless.”

“It is.”

“Doesn’t seem like you.”

Amari shrugs. “I’m helping an old friend. I - we owe it to each other.”

Jesse doesn’t ask - he doesn’t have to.

***

He sticks around. He doesn’t really mean to; it just sort of happens that way. Amari’s not-so-mysterious partner comes back from his recon mission in the interim, and it’s not hard to confirm his identity when he starts talking. Figures that Morrison would be alive, too. He’s got some nasty new scars, and even at a glance Jesse can tell they run pretty deep, but he’s still Morrison under there somewhere - or so Amari seems to think.

None of them talk about Gabriel much. One of the screens they’ve set up is dedicated entirely to him. It shows his latest movements, pictures, notes that Amari and Morrison - that Ana and Jack - have written, trying to make sense of it, and of what they’re planning to do. They’re smart people, and they’ve only gotten sharper over the years, but they’re not intelligence agents. Not the same way Gabriel was.

If Jesse adds a few notes of his own, it doesn't mean anything at all.

***

Jesse watches her roll her shoulders for the fourth time in as many minutes. There's a stiffness to her movements now; she looks exhausted.

"I could help you with that," he says, well before his brain catches up with his mouth. Ana cranes her neck to look at him and raises her eyebrow. Jesse meets her gaze and swallows, but he doesn’t look away.

"Your shoulder hurts, don't it? I get it.” He rolls his shoulder. She hasn’t asked him about the prosthetic, and he’s returning the favor. They’re good like that. “I could give you a massage or something."

Ana gives him the most shit eating grin he’s ever seen, and Jesse realizes a moment too late that he’s been had. "That took you long enough. Get on it."

She settles her braid over her shoulder and turns away from him, humming cheerfully and off-key.

“You could have just _asked_ ,” Jesse grumbles.

“And you could have offered twenty minutes ago. What’s your point?” 

Jesse rolls his eyes, but he walks over anyway, because he’s a sucker he supposes.

Despite her teasing, she’s tense. He begins massaging knots out of her shoulders, working his way in, giving his metal hand a little time to warm up before it touches bare skin. He’s careful, brushing wisps of white hair away from the nape of her neck so they don’t get caught between his fingers. She feels warm under his hand, just a little softer over the hard lines of muscle underneath.

Ana has her eye closed, so he lets himself stare. She still holds herself with the quiet grace of a hunter, and she’s beautiful. 

"Jesse," Ana says, mild. He freezes. "We've been over this. I'm not dead yet. You can go a little harder."

"Yes ma’am,” he replies. Ana makes a soft sound at the back of her throat when he complies, and Jesse is sure that if he had a cigar in his mouth right at that moment, he'd choke on it. He's going to dream about that sound. He's going to go out into the dessert and die of thirst thinking about it. But not before he gets her to do it again.

She starts to relax under his touch, the same slow easing of tension that comes from setting her rifle down at the end of a long fight.

She says his name again and this time he doesn’t freeze. He lets Ana brush his hands away from her shoulders. Considering the fact that he doesn’t take his eyes off her, it’s some kind of miracle that he doesn’t see it coming when she steps right up to him.

She tugs him down by the collar so she can press a kiss to his cheek. It’s practically chaste, but when she pulls away her hand is resting right on his neck, and her touch lingers, warm against his skin.

“Thank you,” Ana says. He barely hears it.

“Any time,” Jesse manages, and then he finally, mercifully, shuts his damn mouth.

***

He sleeps with Ana Amari. He doesn’t really mean to; it just sort of happens.

***

Jesse exhales slowly, watching a thin stream of smoke ripple away with the cool night breeze. Beside him, Ana stands perfectly still, her back to the wall, her arms folded across her chest, like a statue standing sentry.

Just like the old days, she doesn’t bother with the pretense of something to keep her preoccupied. He can feel the tension in the air, like she’s lining up a shot.

“Why are you still here?” Ana says. Her tone isn’t harsh or unkind - just blunt. Jesse takes another drag to buy himself some time.

“What kinda man do you take me for, Ana?”

Ana looks at him, and Jesse holds up his hands in a placating gesture. The sex isn’t what she's talking about, and they both know it.

“I figure this is where I've got to be,” he says. He shakes his head when she starts to respond, and Ana lets him talk. “I dunno if Jack told you or not but… After what happened to you, Reyes sent me out to look for you.”

Ana shakes her head - now she does look kind of pissed. “The only one to blame for what happened to me is _me_ , and I didn't want to be found. There wasn’t anything you - or anyone else - could have done, Jesse.”

He takes the cigar out of his mouth. All of a sudden, all he can taste is ash.

“Actually, I did find you.” Jesse says. “Took a while, sure, but I knew where to look. You were on your way to Egypt, after you got your memory back, I think.”

It takes her by surprise. Ana Amari, who can call a fight shot for shot from a thousand miles out. 

“It's like you said.” He pushes on. “You didn't want to be found. Figured I'd piss you off or piss Reyes off, and since I wasn't fixing to die any time soon...”

To his surprise, Ana laughs. It's a nice sound. “For what it’s worth, you made the right decision.”

Jesse chuckles. “I don't doubt that, ma’am.”

“So it’s not guilt. Good.”

“Yeah,” Jesse pauses, and Ana waits expectantly for him to finish. “I’m just helping an old friend. How do I put this… Sounds kinda cheesy, but you could say we owe it to each other.”

Ana punches him in the arm, and Jesse laughs.


End file.
